When did you start? Share your first wakeboarding memories... Mine start about '96

So, me and a buddy have been thinking back about our history with wakeboarding. I started in 1996. I began snowboarding2 years earlier (the 94/95 season) and I'd grown up as a kid water skiing most my life.

And my buddy had a Neptune GTO. He was a slalom skiier and there were three of us that were living together in a house. My friend had just gotten his first tournament boat, a 1996 MB Sports Boss 200. One of the reasons I was down to rent a room from him was most certainly because he just bought a tournament boat!

I remember the first time I strapped my wakeboard on, I yelled "hit it" and stood right up. It was just like riding a snowboard on the water. I was crossing the wake that first pull and I was totally hooked. Later that season (or maybe the next season) I contributed to the cause buying my buddy a Skylon extended pole. Towers weren't even on the scene. (from my understanding, towers hit with the 1998 Sport Nautique).

Through the late 90's I was getting out what I consider a lot, 2 or 3 times a week throughout our Pacific NW summers...

So, that's where I started with wakeboarding. How about you all?

12-12-2013, 11:03 PM

jmvotto

1 Attachment(s)

1988 skurfer, then 2007 ronix vault

12-13-2013, 02:42 AM

gregski

I started wakeboarding in the late 90's. My real passion is snow skiing; to me, summer was always that annoying time between seasons. A friend of mine had a boat and all of the toys. I knew nothing about water sports but strapping boards to my feet seemed like such a natural thing to do that I knew I needed to get in on it. I begged my way on to the boat with lessons and the rest is history. Now that I have summer and winter covered, I only have a few precious weeks between season to get anything done.

12-13-2013, 08:25 AM

sandm

had a brief stint as a kid at a cabin on the lake our family owned around water but never did recreate behind the trihull with the 65 'rude on the back. it never really ran that good and my old man didn't like working on it. it was a family-shared cabin and he took the stance that why should I work on it all weekend for others to enjoy. can't say I blame him as I reflect on the times up there.
didn't get into real watersports until july '07. went with my cousin on his boat to the lake one Tuesday night. tried surfing and got up on my second try. loved it. he then strapped a wakeboard on me and that was disaster. after several attempts and swallowing lots of water from floating on my stomach and not knowing the secret to flipping a wakeboard over, I gave up. but... bought the supra a week after that and have never looked back. my next try at wakeboarding yielded great results, but it's only a sideline for me. surfing is what we enjoy and what we spend 90% of our time doing. if I would have gotten into boating at 25 instead of 40, might be a different story on wakeboarding but today, I just don't enjoy falling that much anymore. I do still strap it on a couple of times a year and hope to continue to do that for many years to come.

12-13-2013, 08:39 AM

moombadaze

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmvotto

1988 skurfer, then 2007 ronix vault

think it was the same for time period and a skurfer too

12-13-2013, 10:26 AM

Wax

I started around age 12 or 13 ('98 or '99), about the same time as snowboarding (but I grew up skiing since before I was 2). My buddy's parents had a new 3 seater SeaDoo GTX and they bought him a cheap wakeboard with like those sandal bindings. It took us all day one day to even get up, but both of us snow ski and snowboard so once we finally got up it was great. I talked my parents into also buying a 3 seater jetski (we had a 2 seater) so that I could wakeboard, and my dad bought me a cheap wakeboard too with better bindings though. We wakeboarded all the time behind the jetskis for years, every now and then I got to do it behind somebody's boat but I had no idea what I was doing.

When I was 19 I bought a 2000 Glastron 17' I/O for $5k cash because I wanted to wakeboard more, but couldn't afford a wake boat. I had that for one season; we loaded that thing down with a big fat sac and people, and I even learned how to do a backroll behind it lol. No tower, just eye hook...had to rotate really fast!

That fall, I bought a condo on a lake. Would've been '06. I also decided in early spring to start looking at wake boats because I really wanted to get into wakeboarding more now that I was going to be on a lake. I sold the Glastron and financed a 2000 Supra Launch. From that point forward my life basically revolved around wakeboarding/surfing in the summer and skiing/snowboarding in the winter; that season I saw wakesurfing online and bought a CWB ride at the local shop. Nobody on my lake was doing it yet, so it was really interesting and a lot of fun to kind of bring it to my lake and get my lake buddies all into it.

12-13-2013, 02:07 PM

kaneboats

Skied my whole life till around 2005. My brother got an O'Brien Buzz off ebay or something so we could all try it. I used to drive almost 90 min. to the water. I'd get to ski 3 times and be exhausted. I decided to try the wakeboard. Loved it right away. The first time I felt myself moving downhill on a wake was the coolest feeling (didn't jump anything at that point -- it had "sandal" bindings). So, I started riding every time out. Eventually decided we needed a Moomba for the kids. Still enjoy it but with an arm injury I only went about 3X last summer. Trying to get healthier for this season.

12-13-2013, 02:55 PM

bergermaister

Great stories.

Grew up skiing and kneeboarding behind anything that would pull us. Around 93 or so during college borrowed a buddy's skurfer for the summer. Behind a 1968 tri-hull doing 20mph that thing was like death on a stick. My brother's neck still bothers him from a nasty wipeout that year.

Around 2004 (pre Moomba) went out with some friends on their little cuddy and wound up riding in a pimped out red MC X-something with the biggest stereo known to mankind at the time - 4 subs, I think 6 amps, big row of tower speakers. Dude's name was Chopper. Watched my buddy take a set. Then it was my turn. That whole experience right there hooked me - however I rode the board like a slalom ski at first and never lifted off the wake.

Cold brews, hot weather, insane stereo blasting Aerosmith 'Sweet Emotion'. (Still one of my favorite songs and makes me think of this outing every time I hear it.) No idea what board I rode - I was too awe struck by the whole deal to pay that close of attention.

12-13-2013, 03:34 PM

mikenehrkorn

I didn't grow up with a boat in the family, but I did have a buddy in high school (early 80s) who did so I got out maybe 5-6 times a summer skiing -- I'm not sure if kneeboarding even existed then but we weren't doing that yet. Through college and then my early adult years I didn't know anyone with a boat but I missed it badly. Then I met my wife when I was about 30 and her family had a nice little cottage on a lake (which we still own and use all summer long) and got back into skiing behind an army-green runabout with a 60hp merc. I can still remember slaloming behind that thing and being pulled forever waiting for it to get enough speed to finally pull me out of the water!!

That pretty much hooked me and the family that came later for life -- we had a couple of somewhat nice used boats and then finally got the first new boat in a I/O SeaRay bowrider and became much more proficient at skiing, kneeboarding and finally got into wakeboarding at that point. Then slowly but surely got the kids (now 17 and 16 yrs old) involved and they just loved kneeboarding and then wakeboarding when they got a bit older.

From there, after 9 yrs and 450 hrs on the old SeaRay we finally took the big plunge into a Moomba last summer. We were immediately hooked on surfing and my ever aging knees certainly love the easier surf as opposed to the pounding on the kneeboard, skis and wakeboard.

12-13-2013, 05:51 PM

trayson

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregski

I started wakeboarding in the late 90's. My real passion is snow skiing; to me, summer was always that annoying time between seasons. A friend of mine had a boat and all of the toys. I knew nothing about water sports but strapping boards to my feet seemed like such a natural thing to do that I knew I needed to get in on it. I begged my way on to the boat with lessons and the rest is history. Now that I have summer and winter covered, I only have a few precious weeks between season to get anything done.

Funny. I started snowboarding right out of college. I had to wait because until then there was no money for that expensive of sport. I literally took up snowboarding to get me through the depressing wet winters in the PNW. I tried skiing for a day and then tried snowboarding. I knew snowboarding was for me.

I did try to snow ski again many years later. I was very proficient at snowboarding so I figured that skiing wouldn't be that hard. after taking 30 minutes to go down a green run and ending up with my knees on fire, I knew I couldn't ski.

So like a lot of others, it's snow all winter (the wife and son ski) and now I can boat all summer. It's fantastic.